Tightness in right quad forces allrounder out; Tom Curran brought into England squad as replacement

George Dobell04-Jun-2018England allrounder Chris Woakes has been ruled out of the Scotland ODI with tightness in his right quad. Surrey’s Tom Curran comes into the squad in his place.Woakes, who left the field towards the end of Pakistan’s second innings at Headingley, will be assessed during the week to judge whether he will be fit for the start of the series against Australia on the June 13.Woakes was recalled to the Test side in Leeds having been left out of the opening Test at Lord’s when England preferred Mark Wood. He claimed 3 for 55 in the first innings and then removed Sarfraz Ahmed in the second before reporting discomfort.Tom Curran, whose brother Sam made his Test debut at Headingley, was already part of the squad for the Australia series. Woakes is the second player to be withdrawn from the Scotland match after Ben Stokes picked up a hamstring strain. Stokes will also be reassessed later in the week in order to ascertain when he may be fit to return. The England management have already confirmed he will miss the first part of the Australia series.

Royal London Cup qualification

The two group winners will immediately qualify for a home draw in semi-finals. The team finishing second in each group will receive a home draw in the play-offs and play against the team finishing third in the opposite group. The play-off winners will play away in the semi-finals. Semi-final ties will be determined by a free draw.

Meanwhile, Joe Root will be among the England players returning to county action later this week as attention turns to the shorter
formats of the game. Root, England’s Test captain, is available for Yorkshire’s home game against Northamptonshire on Thursday; a match that could yet decide which teams qualify for the knock-out stages.Other players from England’s Test squad available for Royal London Cup fixtures this week are Dom Bess (Somerset), Mark Wood (Durham), Keaton Jennings (Lancashire), Dawid Malan (Middlesex) and Sam Curran (Surrey). Malan has also been made available to play for Middlesex in their County Championship match against Leicestershire starting on June 20.Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler have been rested ahead of the ODIs, while England are yet to make a decision on the county availability of James Anderson and Stuart Broad ahead of the start of the Test series against India in August. They have, however, confirmed that neither will be available for the next round of County Championship matches which starts on Saturday.But Alastair Cook is available for Essex’s Championship game against Lancashire and Moeen Ali will play for Worcestershire’s final Royal London game before joining up with England’s limited-overs squad.

On a day where he took his maiden international wicket, Afridi also confessed that the conditions in Harare were the coldest he’s ever played in

Liam Brickhill in Harare05-Jul-2018Left-arm quick Shaheen Shah Afridi revelled in his first international wickets for Pakistan, braving winter temperatures that dipped as low as 13°C to take the wickets of Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell and D’Arcy Short during his team’s 45-run win over Australia in Harare.”This is by far the coldest day of cricket I’ve ever played,” said Afridi, who found his way into Pakistan’s T20I squad after turning heads with some remarkable performances in the Pakistan Super League, played today in place of the rested Hasan Ali, and now has found his way into the wickets column.With the ball hooping through the air and jagging off the pitch, Afridi found the inside edge of Finch’s bat and then beat Maxwell with one that dipped and curved into his pads. “Since yesterday I’ve been planning on getting these two wickets and trying to work out how to get them out early,” said Afridi.He also added the dismissal of Short, flattening the left-hander’s leg stump as Australia’s chase completely lost its way. With the rest of the attack also chipping in with wickets and the match never out of Pakistan’s control, this was a far improved performance and Afridi said that captain Sarfraz Ahmed – who had some harsh words for his team despite their win yesterday – was much happier with them.”He’s definitely happy with the bowling attack today,” said Afridi. “He’s the captain, and sometimes that happens when he’s unhappy, but today he was much happier with our performance.”Where Australia had gone for the aggressive tactic of banging the ball in short this morning, Pakistan’s attack pitched it up more often than not to utilize the swing and seam on offer. “I think they didn’t take advantage of the pitch,” said Afridi. “The ball was seaming around a lot, and that’s why we pitched it up.”At just 18, Afridi is at the very beginning of his professional sporting career but his performances to date have already drawn comparisons to a young Mitchell Starc from Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur. He took 8 for 39 in his first ever Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match – the best ever by a Pakistani on first-class debut, and then claimed the best ever figures in PSL history with his 5 for 4 against the Multan Sultans earlier this year. During the same tournament, he shrugged off being hit for six by Shahid Afridi (his namesake, but no direct relation) to knock the T20 legend’s stumps down with his very next ball. It is no wonder, then, that he seems to have taken very easily to international cricket.”Shahid Afridi is a very big name, not just in our country but globally,” he said. “He hit me for six first ball in the PSL, but with the next one I got him out. I was very happy about that. After PSL, I don’t think any international match is tough for me. After that, I’m calm playing international cricket.”

Ingram’s illness came on suddenly while he was at his flat in Cardiff and he was taken to hospital

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Aug-2018Colin Ingram has spoken of his relief of overcoming a mystery illness, although there remains uncertainty over what caused the problem which left him with breathing difficulties.Ingram’s illness came on suddenly while he was at his flat in Cardiff and he was taken to hospital. As a result he missed two T20 Blast matches but returned with an unbeaten 46 against Middlesex.”There’s a lot of question marks at the moment,” he told . “Most of the specialists I’ve spoken to feel it’s some sort of auto-immune cause that could have built up over a length of time, or just triggered by something small.””It’s great to be happy and healthy again and to have made a full recovery so far.”Ingram needed clearance before he could resume playing because of the drugs he was given in hospital and the therapeutic exemption certificate came through as he was travelling to Richmond to face Middlesex.”Some of the things they gave me when I was hospitalised were necessary to revive me, but had to be cleared by Drug Free Sport, so I’m thankful to the medical team and the work they put in as well,” he said.Ingram’s absence meant Glamorgan were without a clutch of top-order batsmen due to injuries to Shaun Marsh and Joe Burns plus Usman Khawaja’s return to Australia for a training camp.They coped well, however, securing victories against Surrey and Gloucestershire, before the win against Middlesex on Ingram’s return made it three in a row to leave them fifth in the South Group.

The India coach feels in all the time he has been doing the job, this was the best performance from India “as a batting unit, as a catching unit and as a bowling unit”

Nagraj Gollapudi at Trent Bridge22-Aug-20180:41

‘India are nearly the best travelling team in the world’ – Shastri

How big a victory is this?
In the four years I have been doing this job, if you look at a clinical performance overseas, this has to be the best. South Africa [the Wanderers Test victory] was gutsy, that was a nasty track. But this was clinical. When you look at all three departments, they stood up. As a batting unit, as a catching unit and as a bowling unit.After all the backlash at home following the Lord’s Test, how happy are you with the batsmen coming into form and sort of making a statement?
Was there a backlash at home? Because we don’t read what’s written back home. Yes, disappointed because we ran England close in the first Test match. We are blown away at Lord’s, so we needed to prove a point. And all I asked the boys was to give me some accountability and they were simply magnificent in all three departments of the game.What was said in the change room between the Tests, because for a team 2-nil down to come back is not easy. To mentally keep standing is difficult, so what was said?
Very little practice, mental rest.What was your message to the players?
Clear your heads and show me some accountability.Can you expand on how you wanted the batsmen to apply themselves?
Mental discipline. Get tough mentally. You are going to look ugly. You will have to leave a lot of balls. There is no shortcut. You will have to grind the opposition down when the opposition has Broad and Anderson, who have got close to a 1000 wickets between them playing in their conditions. There is no shortcuts. I don’t care who you are. You have got to tell yourself, if I need a hundred I have to bat five hours. Five-six hours to get a hundred. So you challenge yourself to bat those five-six hours, not one-two hours.Don Bradman’s team is the only team to have won from 2-0 down, Australia’s 3-2 win in 1936-37 Ashes. Is that something you’re going to tell the boys, because it is huge, the relevance of this victory…
1936-37, I wasn’t even born man! Why are you reminding me of ’36-37? One match at a time, we live in the present, okay? One game at a time. Nottingham is over. There’s a break and we move to Southampton and start afresh. Take a fresh guard. 2018.England put India in to bat. Do you think that decision was because they thought they could blow the Indian batsmen away?
I can see where England came from because India had been dismissed so cheaply at Lord’s. They must have thought why not get a crack at India early. And if we [England] can rattle them early and bowl them out on day one, you might have the advantage. But then again, our boys showed a lot of character, withstood that test and came out with flying colours.You would have batted first?
We would’ve batted, yeah.Is this the best pace attack India has ever had?
By a mile. By a mile. No team comes even close.Do you reckon India will have the upper hand going into the last two Tests?
They [India] will be thinking positively, but this is over. Like I said, you start afresh. Take one day at a time and execute your plans to the best of your ability. If you can do that, you will always compete.The message before this Test was mental discipline. What message do you give them now?
Same thing. We have had three back-to-back Test matches. It has been hard. Take a break. Remember all the good things you did in this Test match and take it forward. But remember you have got to start afresh.Can you give us an update on R Ashwin’s fitness?
Ashwin will be okay. The fact that he bowled 20-25 overs clearly suggests it [the hip injury] is not that bad. This break will be ideal for him. If there was a Test match starting in three days’ time, then it would have been a problem.Is Bhuvneshwar Kumar fit and available for selection for the last two Tests?
I have not had a word with the selectors, but they will be picking the side either today or tomorrow.

SLC will also be conducting an internal audit into all financial transactions over the past year

Madushka Balasuriya10-Sep-2018Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has thwarted an attempt by one of its employees to embezzle US$ 5.5 million to an offshore bank account, the board has confirmed. The money was due to the board from Sony Pictures Networks in relation to the broadcasting rights for England’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.”Immediately, upon finding of the attempted fraud, SLC CEO Ashley De Silva lodged a complaint to the Financial Crimes Investigation Division, under the direction of the Minister of Sports Faiszer Musthapha,” an SLC media release stated.The employee in question is understood to be part of SLC’s finance division, whose name has been withheld from the media until the completion of investigations.”We came to know about the incident on Friday, with the individual having sent the mail on Thursday. Following internal inquiries over the weekend we decided to lodge a complaint with the FCID,” de Silva told .In the meantime, SLC will also be conducting an internal audit into all financial transactions over the past year.England are scheduled to visit Sri Lanka for a full-fledged tour comprising five ODIs, one T20I and three Tests. The first ODI will be played on October 10 in Dambulla, and the tour will conclude with the final Test in Colombo on November 23.

England have named Derbyshire’s Afghanistan-born spinner Hamidullah Qadri in their 18-man Young Lions squad for winter training camps in the UK and India

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Oct-2018England have named Derbyshire’s Afghanistan-born spinner Hamidullah Qadri in their 18-man Young Lions squad for winter training camps in the UK and India.Qadri, 17, last year became the first county player to have been born in the 21st century, taking 5 for 60 on debut for Derbyshire against Glamorgan, and went on to make his first appearances for England U-19s.The squad, led by Young Lions coach Jon Lewis, also includes allrounder Ben Charlesworth, who finished the season by making a strong impression in Gloucestershire’s first team.The players will take part in a 20-day camp in Bangalore as part of their preparations for a tour of Bangladesh early next year, encompassing all three formats. A 15-man squad will be named for Bangladesh nearer the time.”It’s a high potential group of players and I am excited by the prospect of them working with this set of staff and the challenging conditions that India will present,” Lewis said. “I think it’s one of the best parts of the job, being able to provide an experience that adds value on top of what the players normally receive at their counties.”It’s been hugely enjoyable this year to see Harry Brook, Will Jacks, Dillon Pennington and Ethan Bamber progress from representing us in last year’s World Cup to impressing in their county 1st XI.”I know from having chatted to them that they felt their time with the Young Lions improved them as players and that’s an example of the value our pathway can add to young players.”I reminded this squad that it wasn’t that long ago at all that Sam Curran and Ollie Pope were sat in the same seats as them. They both showed the characteristics of players who wanted to become international cricketers and their speed of ascent since has been testament to their hard work. I’m looking forward to developing this group so that they can start their own journey on that path.”England Young Lions squad: Kasey Aldridge (Somerset), George Balderson (Lancashire), Ben Charlesworth (Gloucestershire), Jordan Cox (Kent), Tom Davis (Kent), Adam Finch (Worcestershire), Lewis Goldsworthy (Somerset), Jack Haynes (Worcestershire), George Hill (Yorkshire), Luke Hollman (Middlesex), Nick Kimber (Nottinghamshire), Tom Lammonby (Somerset), Dominic Leech (Yorkshire), Jack Morley (Lancashire), Dan Mousley (Warwickshire), Hamidullah Qadri (Derbyshire), Will Smeed (Somerset), Jamie Smith (Surrey)

The Bangladesh captain said his side had had a lot to prove after their 2-0 defeat in the West Indies in July

Mohammad Isam02-Dec-2018Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan called his side’s victory over West Indies in the second Test in Mirpur – capped by enforcing the follow-on and winning by an innings for the first time – a special achievement. The win helped the hosts seal a 2-0 series victory.What made it special was how Bangladesh turned their fortunes around after suffering a series defeat by the same margin back in the West Indies only four months ago.Shakib said he had demanded the best from his players, having delivered them a message to not forget how poorly they played against the same team in July. He said he was happy to see them respond strongly.”This is the first time we enforced the follow-on in more than 100 Tests in 18 years, which is definitely something special,” Shakib, who has been involved in ten of Bangladesh’s 38 innings defeats, said. “We haven’t done this against smaller teams, so to do it against a higher-ranked side is an achievement. We obviously had a lot to prove after losing to them in that manner [in July]. I think we have done that at least at home.”I would thank my team-mates and the coaching staff, for believing that it was possible. I was quite demanding of my players in this series. I wanted a lot from them. I think everyone contributed in their own way, but I saw everyone really wanting to contribute to the win.”The series defeat in the West Indies was particularly scathing for Bangladesh as they were bowled out for 43 in the first Test, the lowest Test total since 1974. Bangladesh’s combined batting average of 12.60 was also the lowest in 63 years by any side, and even though they did wage a comeback by winning the ODI and T20I series, Shakib said a stronger riposte was always going to come through a Test series win over the same opponents.”We never expected such a performance in the West Indies,” he said. “We held discussions after the Test series defeat there, and then came back strongly in the ODIs and T20Is.”Since we didn’t do well in the Tests [there], we had this opportunity to do well at home. We wanted people to at least understand that it was a performance in their home conditions, and see that we could do the same in our home conditions.”Shakib also praised his batsmen for making the most of good batting conditions in the first two days of this Test. Mahmudullah struck his third Test hundred, a bloody-minded 136 that spanned over six hours, while debutant Shadman Islam, Liton Das and Shakib himself struck half-centuries.”Our batsmen have done well on good wickets,” Shakib said. “Both sides [Bangladesh and Sri Lanka] made plenty of runs in the Chittagong Test in January. Afterwards, we have played mostly on tough wickets, at home and in the West Indies. Even the opposing side didn’t reach 500. It is not right to blame the batsmen all the time.”In this game, they believed in the plan put in front of them. We no longer prepare flat wickets on which we are expected to score 500 and draw the game. We try to win every game, and this changed mindset has taken us to a better place as cricketers.”

Faf du Plessis bounced back from his pair at Centurion with a captain’s innings of 103 as South Africa stretched their lead above 200

The Report by Andrew Miller04-Jan-2019Faf du Plessis bounced back from his pair at Centurion with a captain’s innings of 103, his ninth Test century and first at his adopted home ground of Newlands, as South Africa ground out an imposing first-innings lead of 205 and counting to leave Pakistan needing an urgent revival of their batting fortunes to stave off a heavy defeat in the second Test.Though du Plessis’ vigil ended in the final half an hour before stumps, as Sarfraz Ahmed correctly gambled his team’s final review on a thin nick off Shaheen Afridi that had gone unnoticed by the umpire, Quinton de Kock remained unbowed to the close on 55, having settled into his knock following a manic flurry of boundaries and chances in his first dozen deliveries. A side that has yet to pass 200 in any of its three innings in the series to date already has its work cut out in this match – an hour of de Kock mayhem in the morning may push their hopes clean over the brink.The second day involved more grind than glamour but, for du Plessis, it was a sweet day’s work, and one that was greeted with glee in the home dressing room – not least by his veteran colleague Dale Steyn, who recognised that his captain’s five-and-a-half hours of application across 226 balls had allowed South Africa’s four-pronged pace attack to freshen up with a valuable day of rest.The same could not be said for Pakistan’s beleaguered pacemen, who toiled with spirit for much of the day but, on a deck on which their legspinner Yasir Shah found little assistance or role, had run out of steam by the close.Pakistan’s spirits also took a battering in the second hour of the morning session when, in a sliding doors moment that had uncanny parallels with Dean Elgar’s reprieve in the run-chase at Centurion, they were denied the wicket of Temba Bavuma, on 3 at the time, after a low catch to Azhar Ali at slip was contentiously overturned by the third umpire, S Ravi.In mitigation, it was an excruciatingly close call, with Azhar’s fingers seemingly wrapped around the ball, but with the turf appearing to assist the completion of the catch. However, given that the on-field umpire, Bruce Oxenford, had given a soft signal of ‘out’, Pakistan had plenty reason to feel sore that the benefit of the doubt had again not gone their way.Bavuma, who had only arrived at the crease in the previous over following Afridi’s extraction of Theunis de Bruyn, grew in stature after his let-off. He set himself for the long haul in an innings of 75 from 162 balls, showing a good awareness of his off stump but also a keen eye for the loose delivery with 10 often blisteringly harvested fours.In harness with his captain, Bavuma batted clean through the afternoon session in adding 156 for the fifth wicket – the same figure at which South Africa’s fifth wicket would have fallen had Azhar’s catch been upheld.Though Mohammad Abbas in particular was his usual wobbly self, bowling Hashim Amla with a snorter in his first over of the day and threatening the edge regularly thereafter, neither of the left-armers, Mohammad Amir or Afridi, could find much to trouble Bavuma or du Plessis as they persistently angled the ball across their bows in search of reverse swing, but found little deviation through the air.The pick of Bavuma’s strokes were a brace of slashed cuts through point early in his stay before he greeted Yasir with a gleeful lofted drive over long-on in the afternoon, and he seemed inked in for his second Test century – and second on this ground – not least when, on 65, he gained his second reprieve of the day, an lbw decision that was overturned on review after being shown to be missing the bails by millimetres.But then, ten runs later, Afridi produced the killer delivery in the midst of an erratic over. Moments after straying into Bavuma’s pads to gift him another boundary, Afridi got one to straighten and lift on off stump, and kiss the edge through to Sarfraz.Du Plessis, however, was not to be denied as he marched inexorably towards his hundred, most notably with a series of rasping cover drives, which were unfurled in all their glory whenever Pakistan’s quicks strayed in length. However, amid his moments of fluency, he too had his struggles, not least when he was struck a pair of stinging blows on the bottom hand as Pakistan’s left-armers found extra nip from round the wicket.The first, from Amir on 34, required running repairs after seemingly squashing a nail on du Plessis’ bottom hand. And the second, from Afridi on 81, had him flinging his bat to the ground in agony after finding the exact same spot. But he gritted his teeth and got on with the job, and when on 96, Sarfraz behind the stumps spilled the simplest of leg-side deflections off the toiling Abbas, he knew it had to be his day.Sure enough, five balls later, out came that cover drive for the three milestone-sealing runs off Amir, and off came the helmet – not for long, mind you, as Amir sconed him in the same over with an excellently directed bouncer to remind South Africa of the enduring threat in their ranks, even if on this occasion, they are in the process of being overwhelmed.

England’s Test captain misses chance to prove point in shortest format, as thoughts turn back to seismic 2019 summer

Andrew McGlashan in Sydney08-Jan-2019It was perhaps fitting that Joe Root’s Big Bash stint ended with an inconclusive 0 not out off zero balls as the rain came down at Spotless Stadium in Sydney. The tournament never really got going for England’s Test captain, who now heads back to London before hopping on another flight to the Caribbean.He finished with 93 runs at 15.50, a strike-rate of 114.81 and a top score of 26. Some of the pitches made free-scoring tricky and he was dismissed by spin in four of his six innings. He batted No. 4 throughout, Callum Ferguson preferred at three after the powerful opening pairing of Jos Buttler and Shane Watson, when it has often been felt during his T20 career that his ideal spot is in the top three.”As an overseas player you come over and your main focus is to try and make big runs for your team but it hasn’t quite materialised the way I would have liked,” Root told the ahead of his final match. “I’ve made some good starts and feel my game has really come on in this format but, by my own standards, I don’t feel like I’ve produced scores I would have liked, which is disappointing.”Root had come to Australia with the hope of re-establishing his credentials in the T20 game. Nearly three years have passed since his starring role in England’s World T20 campaign, which was derailed at the last moment by Carlos Brathwaite. His 83 from 44 balls in the record chase against South Africa was a masterclass and his 56 in the final, coupled with two first-over wickets, was six balls away from being tournament-winning.Now, however, it feels as though his T20 career is in an uncertain place. Not because of an underwhelming Big Bash, but because of the bigger picture that made him seek out the opportunity in the first place, which came during a rare gap in England’s crowded schedule.Last year Root was rested for the T20 tri-series against Australia and New Zealand, although it took some persuading from Trevor Bayliss who could see the strain the 4-0 Ashes defeat and the associated dramas of that tour had had on his Test captain. He played just three T20Is last year, making a sprightly 34 against Australia before scores of 0 and 9 against India led to him being dropped for the series decider at Bristol. There are three T20Is in West Indies in March and it will be interesting to see if Root is selected. He didn’t play in the one-off match against Sri Lanka in October.The decision to allow him to come to Australia after the Sri Lanka tour split opinion. One view was that, given England’s hectic schedule for the next 18 months – and especially given the importance of the 2019 summer with a home World Cup and an Ashes series in quick succession – he should have taken the time off.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The other view is that careers are short and this trip came with minimal risks, as put forward by Nasser Hussain. “You have to think about the bigger picture,” Hussain wrote in the shortly before Root’s BBL stint. “The old fogey in you might question him playing Big Bash and then being rested from a one-dayer or the Ireland Test match next July, say. But look at the bigger picture: is it making Joe Root a better cricketer?”Well it should do and knowing Joe he will throw his heart and soul into it. He won’t go to sit on Coogee beach. This will all be about him improving. Down the line he might well feel a bit jaded. He might look back and wonder whether he needed to go but, given the choice of a few weeks there or freezing cold in Sheffield, it is a no-brainer.”When Root’s 50-over place was starting to be queried during a lull in scoring last year, any doubts about his importance were quickly shut down by back-to-back tons against India – the latter marked with an out-of-character “bat drop” celebration at Headingley. Even in England’s ultra-aggressive era there is room for Root. But, largely through no great fault of his own, the same may not hold true in the T20 game.It isn’t that Root’s game has regressed massively, it’s that he has had limited chances to evolve it since the World T20, and keep up with the best in the world (his Thunder team-mate Buttler, for example, who has led the scoring charts). Since that final in Kolkata in April 2016, Root has played four matches for Yorkshire in the T20 Blast across two seasons. His one outing in 2018 brought 51 off 22 balls against Lancashire at Old Trafford, a reminder that he still has the game when it all clicks.Besides, the T20 format will take a back seat for much of this year – there are bigger fish to fry with the World Cup and Ashes double that could define this generation of England cricketers. But it will come back into focus ahead of the World T20 in Australia in 2020. Root may at least have picked up some intel for that tournament, although it has to be hoped that the pitches for that tournament are better than for the BBL, and it would still be a surprise if he wasn’t back in Australia for that campaign.Root has every right to want to be the best he can be in all formats, and reaffirm his status among the world’s elite batsmen who stand atop the batting ranks in Tests, ODIs and T20Is. But at the moment it looks a challenging ask.

In the Ranji final for the third time in seven seasons, Saurashtra are eager to win the title but not afraid of losing it, says their captain

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Bengaluru28-Jan-2019When Prerak Mankad drove Ronit More through mid-off and sealed Saurashtra’s place in the Ranji Trophy final, the Saurashtra dressing room broke into a victory chant.”Kagiso!” yelled a hoarse voice. “Rabada!” the others chorused. This happened some five times.It was an odd moment to celebrate the South Africa fast bowler.”No logic of course, it doesn’t make sense at all,” said Jaydev Unadkat, Saurashtra’s captain, when asked about it. “It’s something we picked up from the Bombay [Mumbai] crowd when we played Bombay. Some of them were shouting that way, just to boost their players maybe.”The fun-loving guys we have in our team, they picked it up for us and made a routine that whenever we won after that game, they’ve shouted like that. It’s just one of those fun moments we have after winning a game.”As the chant echoed around the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, a man who had faced 139 balls from Rabada in Test cricket, without being dismissed, shook hands with the defeated Karnataka players.ALSO READ: Synchronised clapping – the ‘punch’ that keeps Saurashtra goingIn the quarter-final, he had made an unbeaten 67 in a fourth-innings chase of 372. Now he had followed it up with an unbeaten 131 in a fourth-innings chase of 279. Saurashtra couldn’t have hoped for a bigger contribution from Cheteshwar Pujara when he joined them for the Ranji Trophy knockouts, having just returned home from a triumphant tour of Australia.According to Unadkat, however, Pujara’s contributions have extended far beyond just the runs he’s scored.”Can’t really have anyone better than him to have that influence,” Unadkat said. “The way he approached this game, or even the last game, he wants it more than any one of us.”That’s one thing I really love about him. Doesn’t really matter what game, what level he’s playing, he just wants to be out there and win it for the team. It’s really showing at the moment how determined he is to win it for Saurashtra. Helping me in the field, helping other batsmen on how to approach the game, not just in the middle but out of the game as well.”The guys have been really fortunate to have him in the side. He has been guiding the batsmen in the UP [Uttar Pradesh] game as well, that was one game where we got the confidence and it reflected in this game.”Even though we were 23 for 3, no one actually was out of belief that we can win this game, it was down to him. The character that he has, the image that he has. We’re lucky to have him in the team for sure.”Cheteshwar Pujara during a practice session•Ekana Cricket Media/ Randhir Dev

Having come together after three wickets had fallen quickly, Pujara and Sheldon Jackson put on 214 for the fourth wicket to take the game away from Karnataka. They may or may not have had some help from an umpiring error when Pujara pushed at a Vinay Kumar outswinger on 34. There was a sound as ball passed bat – though on replays, without the aid of HotSpot or UltraEdge, it was difficult to say conclusively that the sound was the result of an edge – and umpire Saiyed Khaled turned down Karnataka’s appeal.A section of the 1000-plus-strong crowd at the Chinnaswamy began booing Pujara, and greeted him with chants of “cheater, cheater” when he walked off the field at the session breaks and at stumps on day four.Unadkat felt there had been a few debatable decisions through the match, going against both teams, but he sympathised with the umpires. He also felt Karnataka had let the contentious decisions affect them while Saurashtra hadn’t.”I think anyone can have a tough game. The ball was moving a lot, deviating from the wicket,” he said. “I’d just say that [the umpiring] has been neutral for sure… [Karnataka] thought it was out, we thought it was not out. There were a couple of other decisions as well, which went against us, and we didn’t really it take in our mind and play the game, which I think they did.”I’m really happy, don’t want to take any credit away from how we played this game, how we fought after being 23 for 3, and playing the way Cheteshwar and Sheldon played.”Even the second innings, when we bowled, it was one of those innings which I felt was really absorbing. We were all drained out after that third day of play. To be playing that kind of cricket against a side as good as Karnataka is what really matters to me rather than anything else in this game, and I wouldn’t want to focus on anything else.”Saurashtra will face defending champions Vidarbha in the final•Ekana Cricket Media/ Randhir Dev

The chase of 372 against Uttar Pradesh in the quarter-final, Unadkat said, had filled Saurashtra with immense self-belief.”We cannot have better confidence than what we have at the moment,” he said. “Like you say, to actually do it twice (chase down testing targets) is down to how determined the guys are to win the title this year.”We spoke about it during the league phase and during the first knockout game as well. I kept saying after the last game as well, against UP. When they were 100 for 1 in the second innings and leading by 340-350 runs, that was the time when we still spoke. I spoke and Cheteshwar spoke, and we said, ‘It’s now or never’. It doesn’t really matter if we win or lose from here. We’ve worked hard throughout the season and we’re going to put in everything we have.”All 15 guys are really keen to win it for the team. The guys sitting outside as well. If you see how committed they were and how much zeal they were showing to win the game, it’s great. They were supporting every run we were scoring today, when we needed 55 runs.”You cannot ask for anything more from a team that has 15-16 players and the support staff. I think we are in a zone. It is helping us a lot. We are in a zone where we feel that energy from within. We don’t need anyone to really motivate us when we go out. When I speak or when Cheteshwar speaks, we just come into the zone when we are on the ground. That has actually helped us in the last couple of games because you can’t really do these things without having a belief that is actually so much stronger than having those doubts or pressure of winning the game. It’s just about that belief and determination the guys have from within.”When Saurashtra meet Vidarbha on February 3 in Nagpur, they will be playing their third final in seven seasons. Unadkat was part of the innings defeats to Mumbai in both the 2012-13 and 2015-16 finals. He said the team now was different, mentally, without the fear of failure.”Things have changed a lot from the time we played the last final,” Unadkat said. “We’ve got a very young side, compared to what we had then. We have three, four, or five guys who weren’t playing that game but are playing now and have done really well for the team. The atmosphere is pretty different. We were a bit desperate to win the title in those finals.”We are really eager to win it this time but we are not afraid of losing it. That is one change I can see between that final and how we’re approaching the game this year. The fact that we’ve won games like these. I think the confidence will be sky high. We’ve beaten Vidarbha this season on first-innings lead. So that’s going to play on their mind and we’d like to capitalise on that as much as we can.”Having said that, it’s the final and both teams will come out all guns blazing. Let’s hope for a great game. Both teams are looking good on paper.”